SYED Ahmed - Hot Air? followed the ego-crazed entrepreneur from The Apprentice on his new mission to rid the planet of one of the great evils of modern life.

Not - as the title suggests - global warming or expensive heating for OAPs.

Forget poverty. Syed declared: "My new product is going to make towels history."

Yeah, towels. Those bastards. Every time you go to the bathroom, they're there, aren't they? Making your lives a misery with all that, um, drying. Driving you (or drying you), slowly, silently, insane.

Or at least that's what towels appear to be doing to Syed. His hatred of towels was an obsession of Howard Hughes-like proportions.

"What bothers me about going to the gym," he complained, "is you're sharing your towel with hundreds and hundreds of other people."

I don't know which gym he goes to but he should think of changing.

Ignoring the minor detail that gyms do actually launder the towels between users, Syed had been inspired to invent "a body dryer that's quick, hygienic and environmentally-friendly".

Don't in any way make the mistake of thinking that this was just a huge hairdryer. Syed's body dryer was going to be "fun", "slimline" and "retro". Mostly, though, it was going to be "sexy".

"It will change drying throughout the world," he declared. Thank heavens.

So how did Syed fare on his mission to turn his dream into a reality?

First, let me say, he was very good at marching round the City to the music from Reservoir Dogs with his shades on, talking into his mobile. Or saying ludicrous things like "My reputation is on the line".

As if he had any reputation other than for being a complete d***head!

Neither was his enthusiasm dented by the realisation that three companies were already making his "revolutionary" product. Standing (half-naked) in front of one enormous hairdryer, he tutted (accurately), "There's no sex appeal whatsoever."

Next he discovered that, far from being eco-friendly, his dryer would consume more energy than a small factory.

"You've got a product you've never sold. And a product that you don't know how to make," one potential investor pointed out annoyingly.

He described Syed's pitch as "one of the worst presentations I've seen in a long, long time".

Worst of all, Bannatyne added that most people have no problem with towels, even bringing their own. To Syed, this was the stuff of madness. "But the bag's damp. The towel's damp," he protested in vain.

Two things elevated this show from mere reality TV to the level of glorious entertainment.

First Syed's evangelical determination to deliver us from the tyranny of The Towel. Then his efforts to cast himself as the City's version of David Brent.

"I need to find an engineer," he told the camera. "Someone as crazy as me."

His interviews for a PA were so toecurling not even Brent could match them. "So are you out tonight? Are you part-ay-ing?" he asked one candidate, adding that he himself was going to "Cocoon - my hangout".

"Working with me," he promised. "You're in the Premiership."

Now that really is a dream. Meanwhile his fight to abolish towels goes on.